Legislators Call for Universal Microchipping Standard
The first federal legislation to support a universal standard
for pet microchipping was signed into law in November.
Language contained within the Agriculture Appropriations
Bill for fiscal year 2006 asks the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to develop appropriate
regulations so that universal scanners can read all microchips.
Currently, at least three different types of microchips are
used to identify animals in the United States, and no scanner
has been developed to read all three types of chips. Shelters
and veterinarians often are unable to read chips if they don’t
have the appropriate scanner.
The bill also directs APHIS to take into consideration the
effect the regulations may have on the current practice of
microchipping pets in this country, and to report to the Committees
on Approprations within 90 days of the bill’s enactment.
Language that required all chips to use the international
standard frequency of 134.2 kilohertz was removed from the
final draft. [January 2006 PET AGE]
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